5D optical data storage (also branded as Superman memory crystal, a reference to the Kryptonian memory crystals from the Superman franchise) is an

experimental An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs when ...

nanostructure A nanostructure is a structure of intermediate size between microscopic and molecular structures. Nanostructural detail is microstructure at nanoscale. In describing nanostructures, it is necessary to differentiate between the number of di ...

d glass for permanently recording digital data using a femtosecond laser writing process. Discs using this technology could be capable of storing up to worth of data for billions of years. The concept was experimentally demonstrated in 2013. Hitachi and Microsoft have researched glass-based optical storage techniques, the latter under the name Project Silica. The "5-dimensional" descriptor is for marketing purposes, since the device has 3 physical dimensions and no exotic higher dimensional properties. The fractal/holographic nature of its data storage is also purely 3-dimensional. The size, orientation and three-dimensional position of the nanostructures make up the claimed five dimensions.

Technical design

The concept is to store data optically in non-photosensitive transparent materials such as

fused quartz Fused quartz, fused silica or quartz glass is a glass consisting of almost pure silica (silicon dioxide, SiO2) in amorphous (non-crystalline) form. This differs from all other commercial glasses in which other ingredients are added which change ...

, which has high chemical stability. Recording data using a femtosecond-laser was first proposed and demonstrated in 1996. The storage medium consists of fused quartz, where the

spatial dimensions In physics and mathematics, the dimension of a mathematical space (or object) is informally defined as the minimum number of coordinates needed to specify any point within it. Thus, a line has a dimension of one (1D) because only one coordin ...

, intensity,

polarization Polarization or polarisation may refer to: Mathematics *Polarization of an Abelian variety, in the mathematics of complex manifolds *Polarization of an algebraic form, a technique for expressing a homogeneous polynomial in a simpler fashion by ...

, and wavelength are used to modulate data. By introducing

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile ...

silver nanoparticle Silver nanoparticles are nanoparticles of silver of between 1 nm and 100 nm in size. While frequently described as being 'silver' some are composed of a large percentage of silver oxide due to their large ratio of surface to bulk sil ...

s embedded in the material, their

plasmon In physics, a plasmon is a quantum of plasma oscillation. Just as light (an optical oscillation) consists of photons, the plasma oscillation consists of plasmons. The plasmon can be considered as a quasiparticle since it arises from the qua ...

ic properties can be exploited. According to the

University of Southampton , mottoeng = The Heights Yield to Endeavour , type = Public research university , established = 1862 – Hartley Institution1902 – Hartley University College1913 – Southampton University Coll ...

: Recorded data can be read with a combination of an optical microscope and a polarizer. The technique was first demonstrated in 2010 by Kazuyuki Hirao's laboratory at the Kyoto University, and developed further by Peter Kazansky's research group at the Optoelectronics Research Centre,

Uses

In 2018, Professor Peter Kazansky used the technology to store a copy of

Isaac Asimov Isaac Asimov ( ; 1920 – April 6, 1992) was an American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University. During his lifetime, Asimov was considered one of the "Big Three" science fiction writers, along with Robert A. Heinlein and ...

's Foundation trilogy, which was launched into space aboard

Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster is an electric sports car that served as the dummy payload for the February 2018 Falcon Heavy test flight and became an artificial satellite of the Sun. A mannequin in a spacesuit, dubbed "Starman", occupies the dri ...

in association with the

Arch Mission Foundation Arch Mission Foundation is a non-profit organization whose goal is to create multiple redundant repositories of human knowledge around the Solar System, including on Earth. The organization was founded by Nova Spivack and Nick Slavin in 2015 and ...

References

{{reflist

External links

Marketing website of the Southampton research team
Big data Solid-state computer storage media Non-volatile memory Digital preservation Emerging technologies

Technical design

Uses

See also

References

External links